CDC Head Blames Budget Cuts For COVID Failures

CNN reports:

Covid-19 has “brought this nation to its knees,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday in a House hearing. “We’ve all done the best that we can do to tackle this virus,” Redfield said during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.

Redfield said the virus has highlighted decades of underinvesting in the “core capabilities of public health data.” Now is the time to fix the broken system, he added. “This needs to be a partnership. It’s not all the burden of the federal government to invest in public health at the local level,” Redfield said.

REDFIELD: #COVID19 “brought this nation to its knees.” He slams cuts to the CDC that left the agency vulnerable to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Those cuts were written and passed by @RealDonaldTrump and the @GOP to pay for a billionaire’s tax cut.

— Max Burns (@themaxburns) June 23, 2020

While Trump attributes increased virus numbers on increased testing, CDC head Robert Redfield testifies to Congress that numbers are up due to “increased testing, outbreaks, and evidence of community transmission.” pic.twitter.com/nUsKPCcMZT

— The American Independent (@AmerIndependent) June 23, 2020